We had to go to the GP today to get a referral (for the Pead that we saw last week - go figure). While there, Sheena was bum shuffling the room, and putting on the charm. Another mum of a 9 month old asked how old she was and when I said 21 months, she said, "Oh - a late walker, you're lucky, my first started at 11 months".
When Sheena saw her Peadiatrition last week, he guessed/assessed that it'll probably be another year before she walks. I'd guessed the same, given that she's quite tentative with her gross motor, and she carefully calculates every situation before taking a risk - like lurching off her rocking horse, which she's started to do.
Occassionally people ask when do kids with DS start walking. In a way, it is like with most kids, in that there is a range, but with the DS, it tends to start at the later age, and then the range from that is a lot bigger. Factors come in too of course, general disposition i.e. whether the child is motor driven or an observer, medical history (operations, illnesses, medication, hospital stays), male vs female, if the child has low tone which is quite common with DS, whether the parents themselves were early walkers, and the amount of encouragement/stimulation the child has to get going.
Sometimes Doc's come out with things that take you off guard. I didn't mind the walking comment as it was consisent with what I'd thought anyway. However, when she was 16 months or so, her Neurologist said that she was X months delayed from a typically developing child. I don't personally think of her like that, I just take her as she comes.
5 comments:
mayson does things on mayson time! so does sheena. the neat thing is our babies get to be babies longer....right??? i dont mind a bit!
I read somewhere it's typically between 18 months and 4 years for children with DS to start walking. But the silliness of it is it makes little difference in the long run. I mean, if you look down the street, can you tell who started walking at 11 months or 2 years? We get there in the end, and then it makes no difference
I like what Kim said - you can't tell when someone is older when they started walking!
and I can't believe Sheena is already 21 months! Really!? I just can't believe she is almost 2 yrs old!
I agree on the usefulness of estimations like x months behind. I thought Hannah would never walk at one point - now I can't imagine her not walking. Luckily the other milestones that she is trying to reach like running and jumping - don't seem as important to me as sitting up and walking did. I feel much more able to just hang back, help her out a bit, now I know that she will get there - in her time.
We had a therapist give us a list of milestones with no ages - just the next things we should be working on for where Lili is now. I'm glad they are more worried about what to try next than when.
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